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Saturday, November 29, 2014

It’s beginning to look a lot like….

Well, the library is decorated for Christmas and they had a lighting ceremony for the big tree down by the lagoon tonight. They’ve got Christmas music playing in the mall as well, so Cairns sort of has a Christmas feel to it, but with the heat and humidity, I’m just not in the mood. I did watch my first Christmas movie of the year though – Louis and I both love “The Holiday” and it was the only one he had. It was technically before Thanksgiving (which is generally a no-no), but since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia I figured I was ok. We had turkey for dinner and by the time he’d cooked and we’d eaten, it was a bit late to start the movie, but we didn’t have any other plans for the evening…we’ll finish it another time. Well, we’ve both seen it before so I guess it’s not that necessary, but I do love the ending.

On Wednesday I was blessed with a lovely birthday package full of some of my guilty pleasures: nutella, peanut butter, oatmeal butterscotch cookies, and oatmeal fudge bars. Tata, the new girl in reception, saw everything my mom had sent and immediately exclaimed, “They want to make you fat!” I just laughed and said, “Yeah, I think you’re right. Would you like a cookie?” She only took one, but I took them to volleyball with me that night so that helped keep me from eating them all. On Thursday I took some of the cookies to Nova to share with Shoko & Rei, and then Thursday night I stopped by Emma’s on the way home to share some with her as well. What good are batches of cookies if you can’t share the love, right!? Caterina fell in love with the oatmeal fudge bars and when Louis tried them he promptly decided that my Mom needs to open a café & bakery. He claimed they pair perfectly with a “long black” coffee, so you have to sell them as a package deal. When I told my mom she claimed he’s only trying to get on her good side, and while I can’t rule that out, you also can’t discount the fact that those bars are AMAZING.

I haven’t seen Alicia in over a month, despite us both promising we’d get together for coffee sometime. Well Friday afternoon she finally had some time off work and when she was done with school we were able to meet up for a bit. It was lovely to see her and hear how things are going. She works really long hours and sadly doesn’t even get paid minimum wage, which is technically illegal I’m pretty sure, but it seems to be pretty common if you’re Asian and are employed by other Asians. Agatha still hasn’t found another job (she has to find a company that will sponsor her visa, so it’s taking her a bit longer), but she worked so hard, for so long, without any real days off that she’s just trying to enjoy the time off. Their Mom, an Aunt, and two young cousins are coming on Dec. 12th, and from the sounds of it we might not be heading to Tasmania after all. It’s not entirely ruled out, but also doesn’t seem very likely. I’ll still visit at some point, but my travel route might be a bit different now. Oh, and I learned from Alicia (and further explained to me by Louis) that Korean’s don’t count their age the same way Westerners do. I’m still not entirely sure I understand it all, but you’re 1-year old when you’re born, so, if I were Korean I would actually be turning 27 in a few weeks. Plus, I think they change their age with the calendar year too, so even though I’m born in December I would have already been telling people I’m 26, so in January 2015 I would say I’m 27. Hopefully that’s correct, I’d hate to be passing on incorrect information, but from the explanation I received, I believe that’s correct.

That’s about all the new info I’ve got to pass along. I was to work in reception all day today and then go immediately to the Casino to work until 1am, but I got really sick earlier this morning and had to leave reception early and cancel my shift with the temp agency. I’m feeling a bit better now, still got a wicked headache though. Hopefully that will be gone by tomorrow morning. Either way, I’m thinking I’ve put off a chiropractor’s appointment for too long, so maybe I’ll head to the one near Nova on Monday and see if I can get an appointment. Not sure why I never did this before, but here are some photos of my hostel, in case you all are interested: